Paper cuts, tired eyes, and boredom are all terms associated with the task of document review. Lawyers may spend countless hours poring over documents for a single word, phrase or name. Those hours quickly add up, especially when there are hundreds or thousands of documents. Document review might be an income generator for a large firm that can afford to let a new associate sit in a room and sift through stacks of paper, but the same task might cripple the operations of a small firm or solo practitioner. [1] “With discovery requests growing exponentially, the legal department’s challenge is to get smarter and faster or to spend more money and time in reviewing documents.” [2] The American Bar Association reports that 48 percent of attorneys are solo practitioners. [3] Furthermore, only 14 percent of attorneys work in firms with more than 100 attorneys. [4] Is there anything that small firms and solo practitioners can do to make the arduous task of document review more efficient? This article will address the previous question by mentioning the potential cost and accuracy benefits of automated document review. [5]
Cost is a real concern when it comes to document review. In one study the cost of manually reviewing 30 gigabytes of data could cost $3.3 million whereas an automated review could cost less than $360,000. [6] A small firm may never think of taking on a case with 30 gigabytes of data, but the introduction of automated document review may change that.
Automated document review will not help firms unless it is accurate. In one study, the accuracy rate for an automated document review of 48,000 documents ranged from 95 percent to as high as 98.8 percent. [7] On the other hand, the accuracy rate for manual review of the same documents averaged 51.1 percent. [8] Automated document review not only promises to reduce the cost of document review, but also to reduce the cost of not finding the right documents. [9]
For those looking to hang a shingle as a solo practitioner or small firm, automated document review may reduce costs and make otherwise impossible cases manageable, especially if competition drives down the price of automated document review. [10]
End Notes:
[1] See Anne Kershaw, Automated Document Review Proves its Reliability, Digital Discovery and e-Evidence, Nov. 2005, at 10, available at https://www.lexisnexis.com/applieddiscovery/NewsEvents/PDFs/200511_DDEE_LegalLandscape.pdf (“Traditional methods of document review are typified by manual review using contract attorneys, entry level lawyers or paralegals.”).
[2] Tom Strack, Accelerating Document Review, Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Sept. 2006, at 30.
[3] American Bar Association Lawyer Demographics Summary, www.abanet.org/marketresearch/lawyerdem2004.pdf .
[4] Id.
[5] Automated document review is the use of some form of computer program to aid the process of reviewing documents. There are various forms of automated review, some forms look for selected criteria and others look for certain groups of words, for a general discussion of the various types of automated document review programs see Kershaw, supra note 1, at 11.
[6] Kershaw, supra note 1, at 10.
[7] Id. at 12.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] See Id.
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